When I was a reporter working at Beccles I pitched two ideas to the then editor who at the time was very much old school. One was to do food reviews of local restaurants and the other a kind of life in the day of feature on local worthies.
He turned the first one down primarily I suspect because he realised it would cost the paper money but he liked the second idea and so I set about interviewing local people who had a story to tell. It was as simple as that - a kind of life story in print.
It's the kind of thing I still enjoy doing today for my e magazine. Friday brought a good opportunity for a Life in the Day of style feature for the March edition of Hethersett Herald.
I have known Liz French for many many years. Her son Chris and my son Matt grew up together and both played for the football teams I coached. Both were good players.
I came across Liz again when she was doing promotional work for Hethersett Old Hall School which is no more. The school shut down very suddenly and is now a police training complex.
It was a real shock when it closed as the school had a rich history but seemed to shut overnight. I was away somewhere when the announcement was made but it came on the local television news. I heard the announcer say something along the lines of "top East Anglian independent school closes." I didn't take much notice until I saw the photograph.
'Hell that's Old Hall, " I said.
Anyway back to my story. As you know I am one of the owners and an editor of a website on the Le Paradis Massacre in Northern France during the Second World War. On our site we have a contact coupon by which people can get in touch with us. A few days ago I received an email via this method from Liz who had been clearing out some of her old papers and came across a transcript from Arthur Brough who was in action in and around Le Paradis. Liz cannot remember exactly how she came to have the transcript but wanted to pass it on to somebody who would appreciate it. Arthur sadly dies a few years ago but his book did get published and last time I was in Jarrolds department store I found a couple of copies for sale.
Liz Googled Arthur and came up with our Le Paradis site. So I popped round for a cup of tea and came away with the transcripts which I will pass on to our commemoration group. Liz told me about her current projects which is to tell the story of people's lives via booklets. It's called Storytelling Plus and you can read more about this at www.storytellingplus.org or of course wait for the next Hethersett Herald.
Talking of Hethersett Herald, the latest edition will be published later this morning.
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Sometimes there's national news that makes no sense at all. Actually quite often there's national news that makes no sense at all.
Nottingham Hospital's maternity unit has been fined £800,000 for failings in maternity care at the hospital after the death of a baby.
I fail to see how a large fine will help in this matter as it will surely just hit the very people the ruling is supposed to be helping ie new babies, new mothers and patients in general. Perhaps somebody can explain the wisdom of this ruling. OK some punishment has to be metered out and I don't have an alternative suggestion but a financial one will help nobody.